Are we ready for online media?

Organizations are looking at new avenues and opting for new media. Why? The reasons are many – it is a platform that brings in one-to-one interaction, gives quick feedback and suggestions, the reach is greater, it is a personalized form of communication, it helps one to create content and play with the medium... In short, unlike the traditional medium, the new media or the online media is an interactive medium giving a lot of scope for improvement and implementation of new technology.

In today's age of communication and technology, marketers are experimenting with the web like never before. Marketers have used and established Web 1.0 as the primary step in the online space. Most internet users have been exposed to Web 1.0 and have used it and still do. For example, hyper-linking of web pages and bookmarking is a basic step of receiving, storing, and sharing information. Studies show that more than 70% users are only familiar with Web1.0. Web 2.0 helps in the retrieval of information. Wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds are some of the examples of Web 2.0. Web 3.0 is seen as the next version of Web 2.0. Here users can do anything and everything they want from a single source on the web. Unfortunately, we are still exploring Web 2.0 and have a lot to learn and explore.

Some of the Web 2.0 companies in India are Pixrat which is a photo social bookmarking website based in Bangalore, Zoho which works on calendars and spreadsheets like Google, and Bixee is a web crawler for jobs among others.

Is Web 2.0 for India? Some professionals are of the opinion that Web 2.0 is not for the Indian market. The reason being, the low internet penetration in India, the penetration being 5-7% only. Ways of accessing internet is poor in India...people either have slow broadband connections or they need to run to a cyber cafe to even check their email. Whereas in the U.S. millions of homes have broadband connection and are able to access the internet round the clock! Marketers are predicting the rise of mobile internet in India, with over 350 mobile connections in India. But the question is how many of them are GPRS-enabled ? The online medium and the idea of internet mobile is at a very nascent stage in India. Also internet users in India is low compared to U.S. where Web 2.0 has been successful. Businesses in India, need to understand the online space and how it operates...experimenting and finding new ways to tap the potential of the online space in India. Understanding the technology is the first step to adopt Web 2.0 which will help the user adopt to the change quickly. With the help of web 2.0, companies can help promote their products in the emerging markets. The Government does help organizations and start-up companies to implement Web 2.0 and its various facets to its business. With Social Media emerging in India, Web 2.0 is a big opportunity for the Indian market that businesses need to invest in.

Source:exchange4media